Today’s motorcycles are loaded with a level of tech that would have been incomprehensible thirty years ago. And it’s had a knock-on effect on the custom scene: old bikes rebuilt with new suspension, brakes and electronics have become commonplace.

But Dirk’s a staunch believer in the old school. So he also regularly builds classy, lo-fi BMW bobbers in what he calls his signature BMW Kingston style. This 1974 BMW R75/5 is his latest, and it’s an absolute gem.

“Riding classic bikes is pure motorcycling, as it should be,” says Dirk. “These are real motorcycles, as we remember them: robust technology, bad brakes, a bad chassis, and if the tour succeeds you are the king! Your butt is on fire, your gait is anything but lithe, but you’re a champion with that incredible feeling in your chest!”

“Classic motorcycles make you feel special because they are something special. They have style, charisma and an edgy character.”

“There is a need for values that counter the demands for perfectionism in everyday life. Everything has to work, run smoothly, be efficient and optimized—where can I slow down and live my individuality?”

Even though Dirk’s given this bobber bucket loads of retro charm and authenticity, he hasn’t skimped on quality one bit. The R75/5 was subjected to a full tear down of both the chassis and engine, before being rebuilt. The motor was blasted clean and left unpainted, and even managed to hang onto its air box.

The R75/5 originally came from the factory with a drum brake up front—but Dirk swapped the whole front wheel out for a far more attractive 18” Grimeca duplex unit. The stock BMW rear wheel’s still in the mix though, and both are wrapped in Metzeler ME77 tires.

As for the frame, Dirk ditched the entire subframe and built new shock mounts and a new seat support. He kept the stock swing arm, but hooked it up to the frame via rear shocks of his own design.

Resting up top is a new solo seat, wrapped in vintage leather. Just in front of it is a svelte new tank, the origin of which Dirk is keeping a secret. And at the back, you’ll find a stylish rear fender, held up by hand-made brackets with hidden fasteners.

The BMW’s passenger peg brackets were drilled and re-purposed to hold Tarozzi rear-sets. They also have a pair of Hattech silencers hanging off them—made by the German exhaust manufacturer to Dirk’s design.

A couple of truly interesting details reveal themselves upon closer inspection. The tail light’s encased in a repurposed exhaust flange, and the custom-made side stand ends in a section stolen from a ring spanner.

All the wiring’s been trimmed down and neatened up too, and the battery’s been relocated to a hand-made box hiding behind the transmission. There’s an off-the-shelf 5½-inch Bates-style headlight up front, and a tiny MMB analog speedo hiding in the fuel tank’s deep neck.

LSL grips, Hella bar-end turn signals and a single mirror finish off the cockpit. The ignition’s been relocated to the side of the air box, and there’s even a spare spark plug jammed into the steering nut…just in case.

It’s a neat build, for sure, but it’s that paint job that really pushes it over the top. Dirk exercised maximum restraint, wrapping both the bodywork and frame in a warm grey. That same hue’s repeated on the headlight and shocks, with a basic white pinstripe on the tank and rear fender adding just the right amount of contrast.

“Working with these classics,” explains Dirk, “giving them new life, changing their lineage, bringing things together that were never meant for each other, is an incredible challenge and deep satisfaction.”

With about 50 horses on offer from the 745 cc motor—and only four gears in the box—this R75/5 is not likely to break any land speed records or rack up speeding fines. “The engine chugs with a steady beat,” says Dirk. “As it increases in speed, it makes your hands tremble and also your heart, putting a childish grin on your face.”

Sounds very analog. And the perfect antidote to the manic pace of modern life.

We got all hot under the collar a few weeks ago while featuring a stunning, era transcending Harley Sportster by Taipei’s 2 Loud Custom. Max Ma is back again with another jaw dropper, this time with one of the best BMW R nineT street trackers we’ve seen to date.

Max’s keen eye for the perfect line began with the fuel tank. The podgy original has been replaced by a svelte, low profile shape, hand beaten and rolled from sheet steel. A Motogadget Motoscope Pro all-in-one speedo is mounted in a crescent rebate ahead of the machined and hand finished tank cap, which makes for a super minimal dash.

In fact Max paid particularly attention to hiding things. Switchgear wires run through the bars while two ECUs, the ABS and fuel pumps, Li-Po battery and a bunch of the wiring harness have been buried under the tank and in-between the frame’s spars. The ignition is the stock key type but relocated within easy reach to the left of the rear shock.

The R nineT’s mechanicals are supremely engineered and rarely need messing with so Max concentrated on the finishes. The front-end was stripped of its gaudy gold anodising and re-treated to better match the rest of the bike. Pirelli’s splendid MT60RS tyres suggest dirt intentions but are more than capable of being pushed hard on tarmac. Which is handy as the swept-back bars and upright riding position make this a 115hp supermoto-esque fun machine. A tiny 4.5″ headlight makes the front look even beefier than it is.

An H2 shock from Gears Racing replaces the stock unit and offers a wider range of adjustability, plus the gloss black spring and titanium anodised body look damn good. BMW’s carefully sculpted intake scoop is long gone, the 1170cc twin sucks through a brace of K&Ns instead. The stainless exhausts and brackets are Max’s own handiwork.

The driveshaft housing, rocker and timing covers are now gloss black to give a moodier look and show-off the silver powdercoated frame. The rear hoop is all new and the stubby rear fender was formed on the English wheel. An MS Pro machined alloy rear light and turn signals aren’t as small as the minuscule Motogodaget items fitted so often these days but actually look decent as feature pieces.

The leather saddle appears eminently comfortable and a fine lace from which to pilot this fantastic looking machine. Just a shame Taipei is nowhere near Shoreditch.

We’d love to have Max join us in May next year for our next show, with some of his creations of course, to rub shoulders with the cream of Europe’s building elite. This is one R nineT that BMW Motorrad would probably want to have on their own stand…..

It’s been a cracking year for the custom motorcycle scene, with a delectable array of killer builds from all over the world.

There’s also been a huge shift towards the mainstream. The big manufacturers have moved on from simply running custom programs and competitions, and are now selling retro and naked bikes with ‘factory custom’ styling.

Looking closer at the independent builders and workshops, it’s been hard this year to pick out a trend. If anything, it’s been anti-trend: the different genres of bike building have leveled out, with no dominant type.

Interest in scramblers is higher than cafe racers, which have finally bottomed out. Trackers are slightly on the rise—but only slightly, despite the media attention given to flat track racing. It’s bobbers that are comfortably in the lead—with interest probably driven by the popular Indian Scout and Triumph Bonneville factory Bobbers.

This year’s Top 10 is probably our most eclectic list yet. It’s purely data driven, based on page views, incoming links, and social media sharing. It’s also weighted according to how long ago the bike was featured, so that bikes that appeared in January are on an equal footing with bikes that appeared a couple of weeks ago.

Respect to the builders who made the list, and the photographers who captured their skills.

10. Honda CB750 by Bryan Moses When Bryan picked up a rusted out CB750 for $50, he planned to strip off a few parts and then ditch the rest. But then he changed his mind, and here we are—with one of the most popular bikes of 2017 with readers. The engine has been punched out to 836 cc, the front suspension is from a a CBR900RR Fireblade, and most of the back end is from a CBR600F4i. And that strange extra tube at the front of the frame? It’s an oil tank, chromed to match the stainless steel exhaust system.

9. Vagabund BMW R100R With one-piece monocoque bodywork and minimalist styling, this Austrian airhead is well beyond ‘sano’—it’s worthy of a place in the Rodder’s Journal. Designer Paul Brauchart and mechanical engineer Philipp Rabl employed truly left-field thinking here, and the metalwork (hand-made by Bernard Naumann of Blechmann) is outstanding. Even the compact muffler is a work of art, with the kind of sensuous curves you’d find on a high-end superbike.

8. Royal Enfield Bullet by Thrive Royal Enfield is on a roll these days, and so are Jakarta-based builders Indra Pratama and Barata Dwiputra. This Bullet 350 is one of Thrive’s more restrained builds, but the old-school scrambler vibe is incredibly appealing. With proper fenders, a comfortable seat and jewel-like build quality, this classy little number proves that you don’t have to ditch the practical bits to make an impact.

7. Shanghai Customs eCub It’s a sign of the times: an electric bike makes it into our Top 10, and a Honda Cub-based one at that. Shanghai boss Matthew Waddick is onto something here: many top-level electric moto components are made in China, and he’s used local knowledge to re-engineer the humble Cub into a stylish city runabout. The eCub might look ‘retro,’ but with three types of regenerative braking and a full suite of LED lighting, it’s anything but. (Interestingly, Shanghai’s electric tracker only just missed the cut to get into this Top 10.)

6. Diamond Atelier Mark II Series Tom Konecny and Pablo Steigleder of Diamond Atelier have an eye for effortless styling and classy detailing. Their business sense is just as sharp: they’ve packaged the signature elements of their BMW R-series builds into a limited production run of ‘Mark II’ bikes. Each bike gets a monolever swingarm, new bodywork, upgraded suspension and 320mm brake discs with 6-piston Tokico calipers. We thought it was a great idea, and so did you.

5. The Buell ‘FrankenBlast’ Shed builds are the stuff of legend, but living room builds are next level. This one comes from a carpenter’s assistant called Alex, who emigrated from Romania to Chicago and created a small workshop in a corner of his apartment. All that is left of the Blast now is its engine, carb, and the front half of the frame. And anyone who can graft a girder front end onto on a Buell deserves a medal.

4. BMW Alpha Landspeeder Great bikes often have great stories behind them. And they don’t get much better than the tale behind this amazing inter-continental collaboration. After Turkish designer Mehmet Doruk Erdem posted his shark-like concept online, the American bike builder Mark ‘Makr’ Atkinson picked up the baton and turned it into reality. It was a fortuitous match: Atkinson is one of those guys who can build an engine from scratch, using metal billet. The result blew up the interwebs, and even made headlines in the mainstream design world.

3. The Mutant by Ironwood Custom Motorcycles Older BMW airheads are the perfect donors for custom builds: tough, well engineered and blessed with a plentiful supply of parts. The downside of that popularity is a certain ‘sameness’ to many builds, but Arjan van den Boom and his colleagues Eric and Sam came up with something very different for this R80. The aggressive, angular lines are attention-grabbing, and if you look closer, the attention to detail is top-notch. We especially love the vintage Porsche 356 hue on the Zündapp tank, inspired by Singer Vehicle Design.

2. Hazan Motorworks KTM In any normal year, this would be the #1. Max Hazan’s KTM got more web traffic and more social media shares than any other machine from a known, big name builder. The KTM 520 engine is hooked up to a supercharger, a clever piece of engineering in its own right—but the rest is hand-made mechanical artistry at its finest. From the slender frame to the aluminum bodywork and the gorgeous ‘black nickel’ finish, Hazan’s latest is achingly beautiful.

1. The Madboxer Well, we weren’t expecting this. New Zealander Marcel van Hooijdonk spent five years building this incredible machine, shoehorning a turbocharged Subaru WRX engine into a custom-built frame. Power goes through a two-speed auto transmission, and there’s even a center-steering front hub setup. It’s the kind of build that would tax the abilities of a professional motorcycle engineer, but Marcel is a man who enjoys a challenge. Kiwi ingenuity at its finest, and it’s road-legal too.

It’s been an eye-opening experience compiling this year’s awards: some of the winners here were a real surprise for us. Many remarkable machines just missed the cut: we saw Rough Crafts, Krugger, Heiwa and Craig Rodsmith squeezed out by the tightest of margins.

But it’s that sort of unpredictability which makes the custom scene so exciting. Are you as excited as we are to see what 2018 brings?

Reality TV shows about custom bike building have a really bad rep. But when we heard that Anthony Partridge would soon be gracing screens, our interest was piqued in a big way.

The ebullient Mr. Partridge knows a thing or two about swinging spanners. He co-founded Matt Black Custom Designs—a Spanish-based custom shop known for producing head turners—and has now branched out on his own, as Partridge Design.

He’s also one third of the team at Goblin Works Garage—the titular shop of a new Discovery series airing next month. (It’ll be in the UK at first, then spreading to other countries). His partners are mechanical engineering whizz Jimmy de Ville, and the designer and custom car builder Helen Stanley.

Filming the first season meant building six cars and four bikes in just six months. The trio worked on the cars together, with Anthony handling the bikes solo. This alluring Norton Dominator Naked cafe racer is one of them.

The commission for the build couldn’t have come from a higher source. When Anthony popped into Norton’s HQ to pick up a Dominator as his daily rider, CEO Stuart Garner pulled him aside and pitched the idea.

The Dominator is the sort of bike most people wouldn’t dare touch. It’s gorgeous out the box, loaded with heritage, and kitted with nice bits like carbon fiber trim, Brembo brakes and Öhlins suspenders. The Naked edition’s even sexier, with a raw effect on the frame and matt finishes all over.

What’s more, this is the only custom Dominator Naked on the planet—and the first concept bike commissioned outside of Norton’s own design team. “Not a daunting task whatsoever,” says Anthony. “How does one take, in my opinion, one of the prettiest production bikes ever made, and make it better? Or better yet, not f*** it up?!”

The answer is restraint. With a mandate not to cut the frame, so that the bike could serve as inspiration for further development, Anthony decided to nip and tuck rather than start from scratch.

“I just went back to what a cafe racer is,” he explains, “and what they would do back in the days of the ton up lads—strip off as much weight as possible, and throw way anything not needed to ride! The idea was to keep it as simple as possible.”

“This was just a styling exercise, so I focused on the aesthetics and lines of the bike. I made some very subtle changes, but at the same time some very dramatic ones too.”

Most of the dramatic changes happened up top—starting with the Norton’s fuel tank. Anthony took the stock tank and chopped the sides and back off. He then welded in hand-shaped panels to accentuate the lines he was going for.

He’s ditched the original seat too, replacing it with a generously padded unit tapering off to a neat, hand-shaped tip. The drilled seat supports on either side are the original units, but drastically trimmed down. “Most would not even notice it—until I point it out,” says Anthony.

The filming schedule was tight, so Lauren at Storik Metalcraft was roped in to help out on the aluminum shaping work—including the tailpiece and the new headlight fairing. “I owe that guy a lot,” says Anthony. “He saved my ass!”

Every tiny part is beautifully considered, and even borderline artful—like the hand-made brackets that attach the fairing to the triple clamp. Anthony fitted Rizoma turn signals and grips too, but had the grips (and the seat) upholstered by Eastcoast Customs for extra effect.

There’s also a hand-made stainless steel twin exhaust system—complete with internal baffles—routed high up for a radically different silhouette. And if you look closely, you’ll notice that the stock wheels have been ditched for a set of über-desirable carbon numbers from BST.

“The padded seat and carbon wheels make the Dominator even more ‘flickable,’ and an ass-friendly ride,” says Anthony. “This Domi is one that you could easily eat miles on!”

Tasteful and well judged, this Norton is a far cry from the themed monstrosities we’ve seen on TV in the past. Put Goblin Works Garage on your watch list.

Honda CB Fours have become so popular in the modern custom scene, we’ve almost forgotten what a big deal they were back in the day. Which is a shame; the CB750 is widely considered to be the first UJM and the first ‘superbike,’ and even has a place in the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame.

This heritage is not lost on the crew at Portugal’s Ton-up Garage—so they set out to build a tribute to the legendary CB Four family. “The 750 is the big model from the Four family, and the most iconic,” the guys tell us, “but in our basement we had the little sister, the Honda CB500 Four, needing to be restored.”

A straight-up resto wouldn’t do though. Ton-up wanted to give the early 70s CB500 up-to-date handling and performance, without losing the original CB aesthetic and nostalgia. So it became a restomod with a few non-negotiables: it needed a four-into-four exhaust system and spoked wheels, and the original tank and side panels had to stay.

To upgrade the handling, the team grafted on the upside-down forks and brakes from a 2002 Yamaha R1. They only needed one disc, so the other was retrofitted to the rear wheel for better braking all round.

The wheels are new too, with 17” aluminum rims laced to Talon hubs with stainless steel spokes. (They’re wrapped in Heidenau K73 Super-Rain rubber.) Finishing off the front end is a neat custom fender, held in place by a set of classy hand-made brackets.

The rear of the bodywork was fair game, so Ton-up have tweaked the frame to take a new seat and tail section. The rear hump was custom-shaped for the bike, and includes two recessed LEDs doing double duty as taillights and turn signals.

The rear frame work was much more than a cut-n-shut job though. Ton-up ditched the original twin-shock setup, and modded the frame to accept the rear mono shock and aluminum swing arm from a 1990s Yamaha FZR 400R sportbike.

Ton-up also tore into the CB500’s motor, but opted to keep everything OEM spec. So they’ve rebuilt it from the ground up, using only original Honda parts. The carbs were refurbed too, and treated to foam pod filters.

Then there’s that custom-built exhaust system, terminating in four cocktail-style mufflers. It had to sound throaty—like the stock bike—but without being too loud. “We recreated the lines of the original, but with a cleaner look,” Ton-up report. “It sounds quiet at low RPMs, and sounds like a loud Formula 1 car at high RPMs!”

The old wiring was ripped out and replaced with a brand new loom, with upgraded coils and relays along the way. There’s now a 7” headlight up front, and Motogadget bar-end turn signals to complement the LEDs in the rear. Even the new license plate mount out back has an LED built in.

The speedo’s a Motogadget Chronoclassic, slotted into a custom-made casing that attaches to the headlight ears via clever hand-shaped braces. The rest of the cockpit is neatly packaged, with new clip-ons, grips and controls, mini-switches and a Motogadget RFID keyless ignition. (Moving the start button to on top of the triple clamp was a nice touch too.)

Rear set foot controls round out the package, with smaller touches like upgraded brake fluid reservoirs not going unnoticed.

With so much invested in creating the perfect homage, Ton-up knew they had to get the paint just right. Again, rather than going for a straight replica job, they took inspiration from the classic CB graphics and added their own palette.

And they nailed it—the CB500’s new livery looks period correct, distracting you from the contemporary performance upgrades lurking below.

Once the Honda was all buttoned up, Ton-up took it to the streets for a proper shakedown. They’re pleased to report that it not only rides and handles great—but draws compliments wherever it goes.

It’s also for sale, but you’d better jump quick. A bike that looks this good is going to get snapped up rápido.

In a world where your nan uses an iPhone and Bitcoin is old hat it makes sense that the new generation of bike builders are embracing technology to bring their ideas to life. Looped subframes have surely seen their day, step forward 3D scanning and rapid prototyping. Simon from DAB Design in South West France has been working on a series of revamped Honda Dommies and ‘crossers but this latest project is a sizeable leap forward.

Got a 2014 or newer BMW R nineT that you’re bored looking at and fancy a refresh? Well, Simon has scanned with micron perfect precision the original bike and created this bolt-on kit which he plans to produce and release next year. Just as soon as he’s raised funds.

With little more than a Christmas cracker tool kit owners will be able to radically alter their own bikes without cutting or welding, important when such bikes are a large investment and manufacturer warranty still invaluable.

There will be three levels of kit, depending on budget. CNC machined moulds can be layered with a choice of materials, from the entry-level unit’s fibreglass, to flax (see DAB’s first build here ) and the top spec, which is of course carbon fibre.

The lighting system is fully EU road legal and requires only the most basic of skills and tools to fit. A true plug-and-play DIY project.

Four colours are available as standard but you can specify others by negotiation. It’d look pretty damn killer in black!

OK, so it’s not our usual thing to feature bikes that don’t even exist yet but the future is already here and we wouldn’t want to be seen as luddites now, would we.

Bike Shed doesn’t endorse or back crowdfunding projects for obvious reasons but we’re all grownups here and if you want more details about the project and how to place an order – find out here.